Hedgingworx - Hedge Planting Experts
We care passionately about the environment, but we also understand that sometimes the effects of climate change can seem overwhelming.
Planting hedges offers an opportunity to make a small contribution to mitigating some of these effects, as well as being an easy way to contribute locally.
Our core aims are environmental:
- To encourage the use of sustainable hedging instead of/in addition to fencing, for boundary definition.
- To provide habitats for birds and pollinators.
- To provide corridors for wildlife.
- To provide an outlet for volunteers who care about environmental issues.
- To put the right hedge in the right place.
Hedge Planting to Encourage Biodiversity
Britain boasts 700,000 km of hedge, i.e. more distance than its roads, yet this is a fraction – perhaps as little as 50% – of what it was 70 years ago. Changes in agricultural practice have meant increasing machinery size and the amalgamation of fields, with the hedgerow boundaries suffering as a consequence. While driving in Scotland, it is easy to spot roads lined by fences rather than hedges, where they have been widened.
Britain’s bird population is also in decline, particularly farmland birds. More than 60 bird species can take advantage of the hedge habitat. The hedge provides a microclimate for birds to keep warm in during the winter months, offering security when nesting and a good place to search and forage for food. No one cause is linked to the bird decline, but it has made us think about the importance of the hedge in the avian life cycle.
The Hedgerow Regulations introduced in 1997 have halted the loss of our hedges, and the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is calling for a 40% increase in hedgerows by 2050. This banal, often overlooked, structure is good at pulling carbon from the atmosphere as well as providing homes for birds, corridors for animal movement, navigational guides for bats and moths, and harbours for insects and pollinators. Hedging deserves attention as a contributor to mitigating climate effects and increasing biodiversity.
Our Hedge Planting Approach
We are a small team and endeavour to make the process as easy as possible by:
- Assessing the site where the hedge is to be planted.
- Measuring up the site.
- Giving advice.
- Providing hedging plants.
- Planting or providing assistance to plant bare-root plants.